RJ Barrett’s emergence since the calendar turned over to 2022 has been nothing short of spectacular. Has he established himself as the primary building block on the Knicks just a year after Julius Randle seemed to do the same?

OK, be honest, how many hours of the day do you spend gazing longingly at the ever-increasing value of your rookie RJ Barrett stock?

It’s an unanswerable question, of course, because afternoons spent in such joyous revelry exist somewhere beyond the reaches of routine concepts like time, in a place of powerful hope and infinite possibility. If I had to describe it, I’d liken it to a sort of trance state, induced by a 21-year-old's intoxicatingly sudden and successful development.

If you insist on details; it’s an island paradise, where early believers bask and frolic in the continued blossoming of Rowan, exchanging smiles exactly as smug as our Canadian King’s left hand is inevitable, drinking pints of maple syrup and flaunting proud impressions of RJ’s adorable little pre-tip giddy-up ritual, as towering bonfires of Alex Caruso jerseys happily burn in the distance, lighting the way to a bust-free future, the Beacons of 9-God, lit and burning bright.

Or something. Don’t judge me. This season has hurt all our brains.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that RJ Barrett has saved this Knicks season. His development trumps all disappointments and stands as a far more significant long-term variable for the franchise than either Tom Thibodeau’s stubbornness or Julius Randle’s regression. RJ’s been so good of late that his emergence has distracted fans — if only momentarily — from his coach's increasingly worrying tendencies, as well as reframing Randle’s return to Earth from a code-red existential crisis to a calculated shake-up of the pecking order.

For both fans and front office, it might already be Barrett’s team.

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